And I must say, after all my worries, the procedure itself was utterly painless. Seriously…there was no pain involved with the root canal procedure at all. At one point I almost fell asleep! The only thing that hurt were the anesthetic shots at the beginning (no worse than when I’ve had a filling) and paying the bill at the end. And it was very much needed. At one point, the endodontist dangled a little piece of tissue in front of me and said “that is one very dead nerve.” Evidently the pain I’ve been in for the past week was that nerve’s last hurrah, and yes…there was an abcess as well (as my regular dentist suspected), which was in retreat thanks to almost a week of amoxycillin.
The aftermath was a bit traumatic, however. My TMJ, which has been grumbling at me since the tooth flared up, took exception to having my mouth propped open for two hours while the doctor merrily messed around with my upper jaw. It dislocated itself (it does that…anybody with severe TMD learns how to reduce a dislocated jaw pretty quickly) and then went into spasm (well, the joint didn’t, obviously, but the muscles around it did), which is finally calming down after about three hours of ice packs, ibuprofen, and cabernet (I’m saving the big guns…the Jamesons…for tonight in case I have trouble sleeping). I hadn’t expected quite so much “post-operative” pain, if you will (especially having wasted so much energy dreading the actual procedure), but I’m feeling much better now.
A nice upside…the endodontist was able to save my existing crown, and cap it with a permanent filling, so I won’t have to go back in for more restorative procedures. I’m really happy about that. I’m going out of town next week, and really wanted to be able to chew on that side! Besides, that crown was nearly new…I just got it last October, when my regular dentist still thought there was hope of saving that tooth.
Anyway, anyone out there who may be dreading a root canal…don’t. For all its bad rep, the procedure really is no worse than a filling or a crown. I am the ultimate dental wuss, and if I say it’s not bad, trust me…it’s not bad.
Seriously…it really wasn’t bad. I don’t think I’d have had much post-procedural discomfort at all, if it weren’t for this darned joint problem I have (which was, of course, exacerbated by the abcess), and the procedure itself was a non-issue. I was really rather surprised when the doctor said “we’re almost done,” because I was still waiting for the pain to start!
I’m glad things are looking up and that you’ll be able to go on your trip. The abcess part sounded scariest to me—be sure to take all your antibiotic pills, even if you feel better—I know you already know that .
My mom told me the same thing after she had a root canal. She had been so worried and afterward she said it had not been bad at all. Luckily she did not have all the pain and the infection that you had to deal with beforehand.
I don’t really think is it being a wuss to fear pain. Isn’t it normal to fear pain? Any animal would avoid pain if it could. It seems sensible to me. But now we know if we have to have a root canal we don’t have to fear it. Yay! I’m with Nano on the tissue dangling episode though. None for me, thanks!
I’ve had 2 root canals. The first one went really well - and the pain was gone so fast!
The second one with a different dentist didn’t go quite as smoothly. What looked like a nice straight nerve on the x-ray turned out to have as many twists as a mountain road. He had to do some of it by hand instead of using the drill for the whole thing.
Hang in there Redwolf, and take the pain pills if you need them.
They didn’t give me any pain pills. She said to take OTC ibuprofen. I didn’t think that was going to be sufficient when I got home this afternoon, but I’m feeling pretty good now. I’ve been using cold compresses to keep swelling down.
The big surprise with mine was that one of my roots had two canals. Trust one of my teeth to be different!
That is just plain wrong. A root canal should be good for, at minimum, some hydrocodone. I always tell the dentist I’m going out of town and don’t want to be travelling with root canal pain.
But then Tullamore Dew worked almost as well, and doesn’t give me the shakes the way codeine does, so I figure I made out OK. Now if only I could get my paid prescription plan to work at the liquor store!
Congratulations, Red, on a comparatively painless procedure.
I last had one done more than a decade ago, when it involved the dentist sticking something like a tiny metal Christmas tree down the hole in my tooth, and scraping out the gunk. Even though it was not painful to the nerves, it was painful to the spirit.
The most painful dental work for me was the wisdom-teeth extraction.
I had cracked the first one on an overcooked wheat-grain in home-baked whole-wheat bread. It came out like a beer from a bottle.
Later the others needed extracted. They did NOT come out so easily, or painlessly. I’ll spare you the details. I have mercifully forgotten most of them, with the exception of the dentist putting his foot on my chin in order to get a better leverage.
My wisdom teeth were amazingly non-traumatic. Of course, I had them done one at a time, and had general anesthesia (gotta love the happy shot!), but the recovery was less difficult than I’d imagined. But then, they DID give me some very nice pain pills (not so much for the pain, the oral surgeon said, but to keep me contentedly lying down so I wouldn’t get a dry socket), and all I remember for several days was enjoying looking at the ceiling and occasionally vaguely craving a cigarette.
My wisdom teeth came out one side at a time under local only. It involved chiseling them out from the side of my jaw. I slept during both–I’ve never been one to miss a chance to nap–but was rudely awakened by the surgeon’s cussing when they did two on the left side.
To save me from injuring myself while under the influence of sedatives or pain medication, I wasn’t given any. I just went back to work afterward.
It didn’t seem to be painful. I analyzed the situation every so often, trying to decide if it had become so, but really couldn’t identify anything that was truly painful. Persons with Asperger’s syndrome supposedly have high thresholds for pain, though. Perhaps that’s an advantage.
